yes but they didn't impliment half of the tools while saying it. they changed their mind and then started

where's warlocks got like 80% of the tools and just needs the rest and a change/spec added and maybe duel wielding swords add like how enhancement shamans get it. *or a passive that copy's your main hand weapon into your offhand so offhand items are still used

The problem with the Demon Hunter is that its core and iconic abilities are already present in the game in the Demonology tree. If we get a Demon Hunter that can't use Metamorphosis, Immolation, etc then it's not even a Warcraft Demon Hunter.

Blizzard, when doing their rework of Warlocks, effectively stopped themselves from ever doing a proper Demon Hunter class. They had an opportunity to take Meta from Warlocks and push them in a different direction. Instead, they made it even more Demon Hunter like with things like Dark Apotheosis and the Demonic Fury resource.

It's one thing to expand on preexisting concepts like they did with the Monk and the Death Knight. It's another to design a class who's core mechanics are already present in the Demonology Warlock, resulting in, if making a proper Demon Hunter, two specs that are entirely too similar. It would be like if a Paladingot a Runecaster tree that used weapon runes and was spell based melee, conflicting directly with Death Knights.

If you want to see the template demon hunter look at the WC3 class. They have spells like "immolate" and "Metamorphasis" also things like mana burn and evasion. Spells you will recognise on other classes in wow already.

Regarding illidan, he kinda went down a dark path when consuming the skull of gul'dan and became half demon himself. Not really a great example for a demon hunter.

*edit* Personally given the whole history of Warcraft I think the whole warlock class is quite strange to have in game and should never have been implemented, instead it should have been demon hunter.

and before wotlk, death knights used warlock, warriors and shadow priest spells. =O

than only the future will tell which one of us is right.

I believe a demon hunter is better fit into the warlock class, because they share a lot of thematic and lore. warlocks are former arcanists (or shamans, in the case of orcs) that started using demonic power. illidan was a mage that started using demonic power and called himself a demon hunter. both warlocks and demon hunters wear light armor. demon hunters use demon powers to fight against demons, and from the new warcraft visual guide, guess what warlocks do:

"While many warlocks willingly follow the Burning Legion, there are those who work against it, using their magic to fight against evil."

give a warlock spec dual wielding and melee attacks, and you have a demon hunter.

I say it's a safer and more intelligent approach for blizzard to bake demon hunters into warlocks than to make it a new class. less balancing to do, and they can just make a new class out of something more unique.

Tank/melee/melee seems most obvious to me, though a ranged or second tanking spec could happen, if the mechanics are interesting and varied enough. I've been working on a class concept thread of my own for a while now. I have a spec idea I really like, except that I don't think it'd make a compelling PvE DPS spec. PvP would be awesome, and tanking could be cool, but I'm still debating the final design.

I firmly believe there is a whole lot of design space available to create a unique new class; whether or not WoW needs to add any new melee or tanking specs right now is an entirely different discussion.

...and unlike most WC3 inspired classes he was implemented in WOW as an NPC/Boss so the creation of the class would probably be more from the actual implementation of Illidan in the game rather than WC3.

Basically he has no Warlock abilities.

Now you try and draw comparisons...ok.

Glyphed Consecrate is Death and Decay

Shadow Bolt and Fireball...essentially same thing.

We can go on and on and on if you want to talk similar class mechanics/abilities...

I'd like them to hurry up and bring the class to WoW, so we don't have to read 532 variants of the same thread.

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Plox. I got your plox right fucking here. - Animalhouse
I still prefer seeing Thrall rather than blood in my urine, that doesnt make him a good character. - Verdugo